CHICAGO – A total of seven programs from DePaul earned honors from the NCAA for having multi-year Academic Performance Rate (APR) scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports the organization announced on Thursday. Women's basketball, women’s cross country, men’s golf, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball and women’s tennis were all recognized by the NCAA with Public Recognition Awards. The APR measures academic progress and retention of student-athletes receiving any measure of athletically-based scholarship assistance.

DePaul's total of seven teams honored represents the third-best total among all BIG EAST Conference schools. Women's basketball, softball and women's tennis picked up the recognition for the seventh straight year while the golf team was honored for the sixth time in seven years. The seven teams are a high for DePaul after having six teams earn the honor in 2004-05 and 2009-10.

Only DePaul received the recognition from the 16 women's basketball programs in the BIG EAST while softball was one of four league teams, golf was one of five BIG EAST teams and women's tennis was one of five programs in their respective sports on the APR list.

The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention, and graduation in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 978 to a perfect 1,000. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on the number of perfect scores. The most recent APRs are based on scores from the 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years.

A total of 954 teams earned the NCAA Public Recognition Award with 560 women’s teams and 394 men’s or mixed sports.

By conference, the Ivy League had the most number of teams honored with 117 followed by the Patriot League with 80 teams recognized. The BIG EAST Conference produced 70 teams led by Notre Dame with 16 programs followed by Georgetown with 15. DePaul and Villanova were tied for third with seven teams each.

Full APRs for all teams, including access to postseason play and penalties for low-performing teams, will be released June 20.